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"What," asked the ed woman a moment after I’d snapped the picture, "in God’s naustus said, nodding toward her, "your daughter’s car has just been deservedly egged by a blind o back inside or we’ll be forced to call the police" After wavering for a moment, Monica’s mom closed the door and disappeared Isaac threw the last three eggs in quick succession and Gus then guided him back toward the car "See, Isaac, if you just take--we’re coitimacy away from the a cried, they’ll be confused and scared and worried and they’ll just return to their--you’ll find the door handle directly in front of you--quietly desperate lives" Gus hurried around the front of the car and installed hiun seat The doors closed, and I roared off, driving for several hundred feet before I realized I was headed down a dead-end street I circled the cul-de-sac and raced back past Monica’s house

I never took another picture of him

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

A few days later, at Gus’s house, his parents androo stuffed peppers on a tablecloth that had, according to Gus’s dad, last seen use in the previous century

My dad: "Emily, this risotto"

My mom: "It’s just delicious"

Gus’s ive you the recipe"

Gus, sing a bite: "You know, the pri is not-Oranjee"

Me: "Good observation, Gus This food, while delicious, does not taste like Oranjee"

My mom: "Hazel"

Gus: "It tastes like"

Me: "Food"

Gus: "Yes, precisely It tastes like food, excellently prepared But it does not taste, how do I put this delicately?"

Me: "It does not taste like God Himself cooked heaven into a series of five dishes which were then served to you accompanied by several luminous balls of fermented, bubbly plasma while actual and literal flower petals floated down all around your canal-side dinner table"

Gus: "Nicely phrased"

Gus’s father: "Our children are weird"

My dad: "Nicely phrased"

A week after our dinner, Gus ended up in the ER with chest pain, and they adht, so I drove over to Me and visited him on the fourth floor I hadn’t been to Mely bright pris driving cars that one found at Children’s, but the absolute sterility of the place ic for the happy-kid bullshit at Children’s Mee facility A prematorium

When the elevator doors opened on the fourth floor, I saw Gus’son a cell phone She hung up quickly, then hugged me and offered to take h night, Hazel," she said "His heart is working too hard He needs to scale back on activity Wheelchairs fro him on some new medicine that should be better for the pain His sisters just drove in"

"Okay," I said "Can I see him?"

She put her arm around me and squeezed my shoulder It felt weird "You knoe love you, Hazel, but right noe just need to be a farees with that Okay?"

"Okay," I said

"I’ll tell hionna read here for a while, I think"

She went down the hall, back to where he was I understood, but I stillood-bye or whatever The waiting room was all brown carpet and brown overstuffed cloth chairs I sat in a love seat for a while, en cart tucked by my feet I’d worn my Chuck Taylors and my Ceci n’est pas une pipe shirt, the exact outfit I’d been wearing teeks before on the Late Afternoon of the Venn Diagrah the pictures on inning with hi with the first picture I’d taken of hio, like we’d had this brief but still infinite forever Soer than other infinities

Teeks later, I wheeled Gus across the art park toward Funky Bones with one entire bottle of very expensive chane had been donated by one of Gus’s doctors--Gus being the kind of person who inspires doctors to give their best bottles of chane to children We sat, Gus in his chair and et hi each other to juh for ined myself as the kid This time, the skeleton"

We drank from paper Winnie-the-Pooh cups

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

A typical day with late-stage Gus:

I went over to his house about noon, after he had eaten and puked up breakfast He er the eous boy who stared athis unlit cigarette, his blue eyes bright and alive

We ate lunch with his parents at the dining rooht’s asparagus Gus didn’t eat I asked hoas feeling

"Grand," he said "And you?"

"Good What’d you do last night?"

"I slept quite a lot I want to write you a sequel, Hazel Grace, but I’m just so damned tired all the time"